Prime Minister and his Wife Surf in Sewage

David Cameron and his wife Samantha received an unpleasant surprise during their annual break in Cornwall when they later learned they had been surfing in raw sewage. The Camerons have holidayed in the southern county every year for the last five years and were pictured in major news publications bodyboarding in the waters by Polzeath beach on Monday 27^th and Tuesday 28^th August.

However, it later emerged that South West Water had released a large quantity of untreated sewage into the very same water on the Sunday morning previous. As a result, the Camerons picked the wrong time to relax on their favourite beach and perfect their bodyboarding skills.

An Emergency Measure

The sewage had been pumped into the sea in order to prevent it backing up into people’s homes or flooding nearby rivers, lakes and reservoirs. Heavy rain was forecast for the end of the weekend and beginning of the week, which alerted authorities to the danger of an overflow of waste.

Such measures are a fairly rare but standard procedure when the risk is high of people’s homes becoming contaminated. Even more of a threat is when lakes and reservoirs are endangered, since this can compromise the drinking water supply for an entire community.

The heavier rains and inclement climates that have been affecting Britain over the last few years (perhaps as a direct result of climate change) have only increased the risk of such mishaps. Luckily, environmental agencies do have a variety of contingency plans in place - which are discussed in more thorough detail in this article – but avoiding the situation altogether by simply flooding the sewage back into the sea is more desirable, practical and cost-effective.

Out of Character for Cornwall

As aforementioned, the practice is a relatively rare one and it’s also not often that Britain’s beaches (especially those in Cornwall) come under fire for their pollution content. Last year, the Marine Conservations Society (MCS) published a study which found British beaches to be cleaner than ever.  Indeed, after studies conducted by the EU earlier this year, 98.9% of all British beaches passed the minimum sanitary requirements.

Meanwhile, the county of Cornwall boasts more 'blue flag' beaches than anywhere else in the UK, with seven of its sandy stretches showing high cleanliness levels and implementing adequate safety measures. The only other county to muster as many was Kent, which also boasted seven of the blue flag beaches.

Prime Minister at Risk of Infection

Though the photographs of David Cameron and his wife do picture them with their mouths firmly closed, that’s not to say they didn’t accidentally ingest some of the water during their two hourly sessions in the sea. David Smith, of the campaign group Surfers Against Sewage, told the Times newspaper that on average, a surfer will swallow around 200ml of seawater even if they do their utmost to avoid it.

“If the Camerons were swimming within the time frames of a spillage they might well be at risk,” explained Smith. “There could be anything from a small health risk such as skin, eye, ear, or throat infections to much more serious conditions such as E.coli or hepatitis, which can be present within raw sewage.”